A related idea:
After installing some package via SM this info could transferred back to
the SM server (controlled by a user pref). In addition this could be
combined with an UUID coupled to each image. So each used image would
count once, which seems fair to me (OK, people using hundreds of images
for parallel processing could cheat this measure).


Greetings
Stephan

lex at cc.gatech.edu wrote:
> "Hernan Tylim" <htylim at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
> 
>>	What do you think about keeping a downloads counter per Package
>>release on Squeakmap?  I know that it wouldn't be accurate because of
>>the local cache on each client. But it will give as at least a lower
>>bound for measuring the use of a given package. 
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, it's interesting to track.  SqueakSource does this, by the way. 
> If you host your package on SqueakSource, and put the entry on
> Squeakmap, then you can get download counts.
> 
> Note that it's still not a lower bound.  I know that I reinstall Squeak
> with moderate frequency and in multiple directories, and thus I have
> still downloaded packages multiple times even though SqueakMap has a
> built-in cache.
> 
> 
> Debian has a take on this issue.  :)  They have a "popularity contest". 
> Users can, at their choice, install the popularity contest package on
> their machine and thus participate in the contest.  If you install the
> package, then it will periodically contact a central site with a list of
> the packages you have installed.  Using this information, the central
> site can determine the *percentage* of users who have a particular
> package installed on their machine.  You can then extrapolate from this
> number to however many Debian users you think there are in the world
> (not a trivial question itself...), to find out how many people are
> using any particular package.
> 
> It's not perfect.  People can rig the votes if they want.  A package
> might be installed on people's machines, but not be getting used.  Users
> who take part in the popularity contest may not be representative of the
> whole set of Debian users.  But, overall, it seems more accurate that
> simply counting downloads.
> 
> 	http://popcon.debian.org/
> 	
> 
> 
> -Lex
> 
> 

-- 
Stephan Rudlof (sr at evolgo.de)
   "Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis.
    You can't simply say, 'Today I will be brilliant.'"
    -- Kirk, "The Ultimate Computer", stardate 4731.3